Gardening Tips
Your fortnightly gardening tips for indoors and outdoors |
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Lawn
Reduce the frequency of mowing in hot, dry weather and raise the height of cut. In hot
weather, irrigate the lawn in the evening and give a thorough soak. Do not do this more
than once a week. Give a lawn tonic if growth is poor, and if the soil is moist. Do not
fertilise dry lawns.
Pinks
Take more cuttings for plants to put out next spring. These can simply be pulled gently
from the parent plant and dibbed into small pots filled with cutting compost or a 50:50
mix of peat and sand, at three cuttings per pot.
Camellias
Keep plants moist at all times because drought during July and August will cause the
flower buds to drop off next spring. This is especially important in the case of
container- grown plants and those growing close to walls.
Wasps
Wasps feast on plums in late summer. If you have a nest in your garden, puff or spray
insecticide into the nest, but take great care and attempt this only in late evening when
the insects have stopped flying. To tempt wasps away from your fruit, hang or stand traps
around the tree. Put water and jam or sugar in a jar, tie a paper cover over the top and
push a hole in this. The wasps will crawl in, become trapped and drown.
Biennials
Thin out wallflowers to allow them more room to grow and pinch out the growing tips to
increase bushiness. Feed bellis and pansies in pots for planting in autumn. Pull up
Canterbury bells as they fade.
Dahlias
Put earwig traps on canes to protect blooms. Simply fill pots with straw and invert on a
cane. Spray against mildew.
Harvest and store onions
Spring Sown and planted onions (sets) should soon be ready to harvest. Varieties planted
and sown in the autumn are usually ready to harvest in June and are especially valuable
because they are ready when onions are expensive in the shops. It is time to plant these
now. Spring sown onions will ripen faster and store for longer if you lift them gently to
expose the skins to the sun and prevent them resting on moist soil.
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How do "Keep off the Grass"
signs get where they are? |
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| Embarrassing
Stories |
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| During the war we couldn't get stockings very often and
used gravy browning to colour our legs. We then drew lines down the backs of our legs to
look like seams in our stockings. I was going off to a dance in the village hall, where a
young man I really liked was going to be. I did not realise that while walking through the
woods, the damp ferns had streaked the backs of my legs. I looked like a tiger with all
the dust and different colours on my legs. It was okay though, we had a laugh and I ended
up marrying him! |
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Why are violets blue and
not violet? |
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Run for
your Wife |
This was Ray Cooney's stroke of genius. This lovely fast
and outrageously funny farce surpasses itself to any endearing husband who might think
that having two wives at the same time was ever going to be a piece of cake. All goes well
for cabbie John Smith until his busy and punctually chaotic schedule goes horribly wrong
after an accident and an impromptu night in hospital and the police station. He is pursued
by two policemen and eventually confronted by both wives when eventually his terrible
secret is revealed. This year's Summer Rep Company, I thought gave a stonking performance
on the Friday night when I saw it. It was nice to see an appearance from local amateur
Colin Prentice and our very own celebrity Paul Barnes. However, I felt that Paul seemed to
be a tad out of his depth in this cameo role against the other younger and seemingly
stronger characters of the cast. I felt he struggled with the role and at times, along
with the rest of us, with the unbearable heat of the Theatre as the air conditioning
seemed not to be working. The gay chap who lived with his Cyril upstairs floated somewhat
in and out of camp at times, but we were engrossed with the generous camp flourishes and
hilarity his character added to the overall humour of the piece. I felt the set was
beautifully planned albeit a trifle on the dull side and the use of stage space superb,
given the lack of room afforded to the actors. None the less, the entire cast deserved
their rapturous applause at the end. A most entertaining evening out, I hope we'll be
seeing them here again next year. Well done to one and all.
N. Manson |
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